Posted by: Robert Bortner in Untagged on
Jan 16, 2012
Tropical deforestation accounts for almost one-fifth of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Because of its substantial deforestation, Indonesia is thought to be the world's third-largest producer of greenhouse gases, after the United States and China.
The Amazon rainforest has been described as the "lungs of our planet" because it provides the global environment with the essential service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world's oxygen is produced in the Amazon rainforest. In 2001, the Amazon covered approximately 5.4 million square kilometers, which is only 87 percent of its original size.[1] Rainforests have decreased in size primarily due to deforestation. Despite reductions in the rate of deforestation in the last 10 years, the Amazon rainforest will diminish by 40 percent by 2030 at the current rate.[2] According to WWF Brazil, deforestation and forest fires are responsible for 75 percent of Brazilian greenhouse gas emissions.
Posted by: Administrator in Untagged on
Dec 29, 2011
CEN was featured in an article by Michael J. Carter which appeared in IPS (Inter Press Service) on December 27th about figuring out how to change the world for the better.
According to a 2009 study at Stanford University, a new non-profit organisation is registered every 10 to 15 minutes in the United States alone. As a result there are as many varieties of aid projects as colours in the rainbow.
Posted by: Administrator in Untagged on
Dec 19, 2011
by Gwen Davis
Full article in Tuesday, December 13, 2011 South Seattle Beacon Hill Newspaper
The quality of life in developing countries can keep one awake at night: Children working in sweatshops; women working 19 hours a day for 10 cents a week; little access to HIV/AIDS or malaria medication; chronic starvation and institutionalized poverty.
Posted by: Frances Walker-Dudenhoefer in Untagged on
Aug 11, 2011
With the best of intentions, global development work often falters when NGOs take a top-down approach. As “experts”, organizations believe they know what’s best for communities - routinely implementing projects that realize their concept of development and oftentimes importing Western staff to achieve this. Exacerbating this scenario is the phenomenon of Learned Helplessness, a term most frequently heard in the field of domestic violence, but also applicable to communities that over generations have become used to having decisions made for them. With communities not engaged in the initial planning and development process, it is little surprise that the developing world is now littered with technology and projects that fell apart as soon as the implementing NGO left.
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| Top - down development can exacerbate learned helplessness |
HIV/AIDS work, both domestic and global, has frequently taken a different approach. In forcing governments to acknowledge the existence of the disease, the fight against HIV has been fought from the ground up since the very beginning. In the early days activism by the gay community in the United States forged and guided public health policy and programs at every level, creating effective and powerful models both informed by scientific research and rooted in community needs. As the HIV pandemic spread to other demographic groups, the importance of direct community input and their engagement in the decision-making process was recognized as key to the fight against HIV. The uniqueness of each community group and their own specific needs are identified through such ground-level tools as community planning groups, community-based organization capacity building and, most importantly, the hiring and training of individuals who “walk-the-walk and talk-the–talk” of their community to implement the work.
Posted by: Danielle Bradford in Untagged on
Mar 8, 2011
“I think we are living a very critical moment actually, now, in terms of the discussion of women, and in a transitional period of our economies.”
Zainab Salbi, founder and CEO, Women for Women International
2010 provided several instances that benefited numerous communities. Nations worked together to aid neighbors struck by natural disasters, and we watched as historic revolutions were born, showcasing the unquestionable truth of what collective action can produce. Though there were a few rough spots with our own economic recovery, political playground fights, continuing wars, and questions of what we’re doing wrong, this provided a perfect opportunity to examine exactly how we can make it right.
